good afternoon. i'm liz claman. teenine is nine hours in one minute until midnight into we sail over the fiscal cliff. the last hour of trading, last session of the year. one hour left to trade. president obama says this afternoon the progress is being made, but there is still plenty of work to be done but the stocks right now. very close to session highs, up 137 points. the nasdaq better by 58. the s&p 500 up one and a half points to low 20 points. not bad at all. the market started ticking off a little after noon when investors get worried that the president was going to speak at 130. in a tape that is pretty soon to begin, very few volumes speculated, it will to push the market higher. here you go.

the dow had its intraday high of 30 minutes before the president spoke. right now of 131 points. the market moving mostly to the upside. the blue chips, hewlett-packard up above four 1/4%. $14.26 per share, but down about 45% for the year. economy names like caterpillar in the green, up three in the third. a similar story for ge up to one 1/4. so these are widely held stocks that could be in your portfolio. your pension fund doing very nicely on this last trading day. there is a school of thought that no matter what happens in the debt deal negotiations gold is the ultimate winner. the idea being that the fed is going to have to print more money either way, deal or no deal. gold very close to session highs, up $20 in the aftermarket. take a look at silver up one 2/3%.

high-grade copper up one and three-quarters percent. what does that tell you? optimism. the countdown is on. now we are eight minutes, eight hours, 59 minutes to go watching this every single second for you. this, of very serious situation as we plan -- plummet over the fiscal cliff. negotiations are still not there yet. complete coverage. rich edson has been grabbing lawmakers in yanking into the microphone all day. peter barnes watching every word of the white house. one e-mail that i have in my hand caught our attention. senator mitch mcconnell telling republican colleagues they had a deal at 1:45 a.m. but then later this morning which would be early for most people, the white house call demanding that the sequestered be turned off. what are you hearing about that? what does that really means? >> well, upon capitol hill,

apparently at the last minute there were some senate democrats who were getting nervous. there has been some division as to whether or not there were trying to replace the sequester, the lay it all together, or to allow some partial cuts. apparently the plant originally was that the senate democrats and republicans will each put forward their own ideas and plans for dealing with the sequester but then again according to our colleague, some senate democrats got concerned about that. they would rather just delay th3 sequester altogether. as a result there was that late phone call asking mitch mcconnell told of. we just heard him on the floor saying that they are going to -- that they were going to wait on that piece and tried to get the tax be stunned. i do have a couple more details of want to share with you that are important. the tax extenders. very important to the business community. i have from an official who was

involved in these negotiations learn that the framework would, in fact, extend the research and development tax credit. very important to tech companies and to other companies that do a lot of r&b, extending for one more year. also the provision for special depreciation. 50 percent bonus depreciation would be extended for another year. the president at an event at the white house with working-class middle-class families, urging them to keep up the pressure on the members of congress to get to sequester finish line. >> as the president just said, we are very close to an agreement. we need to protect american families and job creators from this looming tax act. everyone agrees that action is necessary. i can report that we reached an agreement on all of the tax issues.

>> obviously that was not the president. that was the republican leader has been negotiating with vice-president biden to get this thing done, get a from work done behalf of the president. >> it seems that those two were getting some action done. >> this is the way it has worked with these last minute deals, the debt ceiling and others. longtime friends. they knew each other obviously in the senate. more than 20 years. and so he said yesterday he could not get anything done with the democratic leader harry reid and needed to find a willing dance partner. he said he was going to call joe biden. that was about 24 hours ago. liz: right now the markets are very close to session highs with the belief that something is going to happen. we take it right now to the rotunda where rich edson has been all day long sinking his

nails into lawmakers. tell us to you have, what you're talking about, what you were hearing. >> this is the framework of the deal they're discussing right now. as just detailed, the automatic spending cuts, that is the outstanding issue. this is what they locked up. end, rates of $400,000 per year, 450,000 tamales and from tax increases. as for capital gains and dividends, they stay the same. the alternative minimum tax, the state tax rose to 40 percent with a $5 million exemption. another one-year extension of long-term unemployment benefits. right now the issue is those spending cuts, the automatic spending cuts, the $94 billion known as the sequestered. but that we bring in a republican congressman from new jersey. thank you for joining us. the framework adjusted tailed, do you think it's something you could get behind?

>> the president has repeatedly famously said that we can cut our way to prosperity and, of course, the flip side of that is even more true which is that we cannot tax our way to prosperity although mcconnell said that the tax portion is already worked out and agree upon, if you think about it, what have they really agreed upon? the agreed upon taxing small businesses continuously. the continuing for the tax preferences for all large businesses. large businesses get away easy, scot-free. your small businesses have to see their taxes go up. i don't think that's the way to bring it to prosperity or create more jobs or turn the economy around. >> tomorrow all the rates go up, and this is not tax cuts starting in about 13 hours or so it would have been something really easy that we could have done a month ago, simply say keep the tax rates where they are right now for everyone, you, me, everybody.

keep the rates exactly where they are in in making it to the other half of this equation, the larger half. the spending side. we have to look at this and say what are we doing to our kids and grandkids, children? we are putting this burden, even with the president's proposal of higher taxes and spending on future generations. that is an immoral suggestion. >> to you think this to pass the house? >> we have to see whether it passes the senate. although they thought they reached a deal on the tax side, the rumor is that the president, just as he did earlier, continues to raise the bar as we get closer to the end game. from day one is in but the president really did not want to do this before the end of the day, before the end of the deadline. babies living up to that rumor. >> as the framework exists, i go back. we cannot tax our way to prosperity. we cannot put in an additional burden on this economy and still do nothing on the spending side

of the equation and think that we're going to help out the average middle-class american. >> thank you so much for joining us. we're going to need votes to get something like this time. again, the negotiation continues. liz: keep that camera up and anytime you see anybody, grab them, get them in front of this camera because they are our elected officials and have to answer to our viewers. thank you. let's get right to the markets. it is quite obvious that the markets are being held hostage you could say to what is happening right there in washington d.c. the traders are on the floor watching moment by moment. the new york stock exchange, cme, and the nymex. you just heard the representative. we have to wait for the senate. we cannot do anything into the senate comes out. what i noticed was 12:30 p.m. eastern when it was announced the president was going to speak the markets took off. when the president spoke the

moderated and now we're back up and running. what are you seeing and how important is it? >> first of all, let the volume. continues to be low. i think we are getting -- this morning we had a bit of a technical rally. a massive short-covering. people want to go home in case we do is some kind of a deal. liz: but looking at, for example, the nasdaq. this is a decent job of close to two percentage points. it looks like people are at least trading. there has to be that feeling positivity. >> the president was very a beat. he really did sound good, confident, and very hopeful that he could still get something done. i don't think so. skype think this is people covering shorts. in volumes like this don't forget it doesn't take much to move the market. liz: no matter what we feel about the fact that if there are tax hikes on certain levels of income, should we not then see

some spending cuts. the fact is right now gold is about $20 unchanged. we see copper rallying, silver rallying, and we are looking at commodities looking healthy. what does that mean for the average investor out there who is watching? >> the average investor, the risk is back on, like you said. a lot of individuals, we would hit 1800 level. we are right around the $1,700 range. more importantly, you discussed it earlier. silver up around $38, and we have oil and production, seen $95 a barrel crude prices. that is something that in the next first quarter, second quarter, a lot of investors, especially traders here will really look for that risk on. liz: you are talking about silver futures because of looking at the spot price right now. i'm ooking at january delivery.

>> right. $30. $38. $1,800. $95 is really where. 2013 is going to happen because you're going to get a deal. liz: okay. the nymex gets to be the tie breaker. as we are awfully close to $92 a barrel. have not seen that the wild. >> no, we haven't. you have to point to the fact that the iranians are making a lot of noise. you did see a little profit-taking earlier. news out of washington. the deal will get done. i hate to disagree with you. c'mon. the 11th-hour. i'm going to be the hero. it's already written out that way. reseeding gold and silver. obviously people did not want to be the first person and, once it started to gain momentum it took off.

that's pretty much the stretch right now. liz: once again, assi wish you a happy new year, i love having you all on the program. on this day we are witnessing history. we can tell our children about the night that we worked and were on fox business and looking at the situation. i would personally love to see some real spending cuts at this point. okay. fine. you talk to a lot of ceos. most of them and make money as saying, you can tax me more. at least give me something for it. let me see something that brings down our deficit. okay. great to see you. happy new year. thank you so much. most of the the seiders, our elected officials are in d.c. on this new year's eve with a heat lamp of the media and constituents on them right now. what will they do?

we are joined right now. we kept grabbing people. representative, a democrat from california. thank you so much for joining us . we have less than nine hours to go. tell me, what do you think will happen? >> let's be hopeful. let's be hopeful that we did a good, balanced deal. the ceos of looking for a balanced deals. i think there is one to be had. we have to pick a number where we have adequate revenues, somewhere above 250,000. okay. as a number. then on the cut side, keep in mind that in the budget control act of this year we have already well over a trillion, nearly a trillion 3-$400 billion of cuts already to take place. this sequestration is in addition to that. there are serious cuts coming down. they have to be done wisely, and that is why sequestration is a problem because it is not a wise way to make cuts.

liz: i know you well because i'm from california. of watch your career closely. you and i both went to berkeley. you also went to harvard business school. you understand business. we cannot outsize the government to what those tax revenues are that comment. must we not at some point make everybody feel it, not talking specifically about the spending cuts part of this. it's going to hurt, but don't we need our own form of austerity? wheel of the europeans and yet all we want to do is tax the wealthy more. okay. the wealthy will take a little bit, but were not coming in with meaningful spending cuts. >> two different kinds of cuts that we need to keep in mind. one is the overall deficit which is going to take half a decade to a decade to resolve and get the whole thing back in proper order. you cannot do it in one or two years. you have to be careful with austerity, and one of the big things and was being talked about over these last several

months is the austerity that could have been or might be created by the fiscal cliff. taking money out of the pockets of the taxpayers. and making serious budget cuts at the simultaneous. the result is a serious austerity and buy every economist and author of the economy back into a recession. it's a matter of timing. how do we time the cuts over what amount of time, and then water they going to be? we need to keep in mind that every business, at least that's what i learned at harvard and beyond, you have to make investments. you have to make the proper investment continually. if you do that at think will be in good shape. liz: i get that. just a few seconds left. you can always get what you want. if you had to give up one thing, would you go to 450,000? people have that income. would you say okay?

>> if that is part of the deal the answer is, yes, i would. pick a number. keep in mind the need to have the necessary revenues. you get pretty close to the edge where you won't have the revenues necessary, but all the other tax issues, some of which it talked about in the previous segments. liz: democrat of california. we thank you very much for getting in front of our cameras. >> a happy new year. liz: don't worry. we'll be bringing you everyone that we possibly can in these last 46 minutes. dow jones industrials. we will be right back. don't move.

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♪ liz: on this last trading day of

the year let's take a look at the best performing commodities of 2012. a lot of you are invested. >> reporter: you might not have guessed this. the top performer for the year, lumber up 51%, beating of those, and commodities like oil and gas and gold and silver. prices of 51% for the year as we continue to get better than expected news on the housing market. lumber benefiting. we, soybeans were your number two and three. up 19%, soybeans up 17%. a lot of those agricultural commodities driving in the face of surging global demand. chinese and indian demand as well as some inclement weather pushing prices higher. and lastly, natural gas rounding off your top commodity performers for the year. counting of 12 year lows, up 12% for the year. most recently colder temperatures across the country pushing those natural-gas prices

higher as well. let's get that. your best for former. liz: warmer temperatures. thank you so much. happy new year. volatility by volatility, markets charging ahead. not having a negative reaction. so where is the disconnect? main street and wall street over the uncertainty beverly hills wealth management founder and ceo. there is an obvious disconnect because right now if you look at the market for the moment. what do you think about the fact we are charging ahead and we could see some pretty severe spending cuts were not? we just don't know if there's a deal yet, but it looks pretty positive. >> we don't know yet, and this

is offering. we've been talking about this for months on end, and the average investor is disinclined to worry in many respects. but you don't hear what the spending cuts are going to be. you don't hear what -- see what we're going to see in the way a different taxes. it might be a good opportunity for h&r block to buy that stock. generally get for a trade to the low 20's. what you need to do as an investor is take a look your own fiscal cliff. are you truly in the shape you want to be in? 2012, 13, and stop and take out of how you personally are doing. you voted on november the sixth, you get everything you could do. take a look get your own fiscal cliff. liz: let's say you feel like risk should be on. positive about 2013.

talk about stocks because you're going to have sex that people should be looking at right now. let's put up the first three. they all seem pretty similar. when you're looking at some of these names. target, walmart, costco. >> because for different reasons. each one of them has some strengths that the other one doesn't have. walmart in order to expand has been taking some black eyes here recently, but we think that they are backing plate. people are very concerned about getting good value for money. these behemoth's offer you a tremendous opportunity. full value for your dollar. >> everybody wants to know what you're saying. liz: who will make them wait. hold on through this commercial break. coming right back in a minute with four more names he absolutely loves for 2013.

liz: 8:34 before we hit that fiscal cliff, but we're checking stocks right now for two seconds, founder and ceo of beverly hills wealth management. you should have costco, target, walmart in there. now let's go to another name that you say is a great u.s. play, on china stabilizing and growing. >> yes, and that's starbucks. starbucks a great american company. everybody needs a good cup of

coffee. in china there is only one starbucks for every 1.9 inhabitants, can you believe that when we have one basically on every corner? [laughter] so there's tremendous opportunity there. you've got the tea growers in china, a lot of them are now switching to coffee because of starbucks, so that's a double play for you. liz: wait until they find out what a frappucino tastes like. >> oh, look out, china. liz: two pharma companies, what do you think are the big names here because we're all getting older, and we all need new medicine. >> we're going to be buying a lot of pfizer especially and bristol-myers. those are the two picks we have. pfizer is around 24, $25 a share, bristol-myers about 31. and they have in common a new blood-clotting drug, and everyone's very, very excited about that.

bristol-myers developed it, and pfizer will be marketing it. so we hi there's huge opportunity -- we think there's huge opportunity there. all the stocks we've talked about today have got options against them, too, so it's another way in a do-nothing market that you can generate additional income by selling some covered calls against them. liz: good add mice, mag. -- advice, mag. beverly hills wealth management founder and ceo. if you have to pick the one sector that's done so beautiful through this year, financial stocks. they soared in 2012, outpacing the entire s&p 500 which is up about 12% for the year. and of the one out there that has done just beautifully, bank of america. on your screen, leading the way up more than 104% year-over-year. so now the question many investors face is whether you double down on financials, or you take your marbles, your profits, and go home? will it continue into 2013, this

party? app on the schutz is joining me in a fox business exclusive on the phone from rochester, new york. as you prepare for your new year's eve celebration, anton, we so appreciated you joining us on the phone. 104% gain, do you double down or say, okay, that can't happen twice? >> well, 104% isn't going to happen in 2013. however, there still is quite a bit of upside in bank of america. it dropped tremendously over the last couple of years leading into last year. there's a lot of tax laws at the end of last year which drove it down to $5 a share. obviously this year anybody who's bought it in the last year has had some pretty good gains. this stock was $18 just a couple of years ago and can certainly get back into the mid to upper teens. what it needs to get through is a better capital markets environment, so we hope that all these people in washington are listening and let the market get back to normal business. it also needs to get through a lot of mortgage headaches, and there's still a lot of them out

there -- liz: and, frankly, anton, regulatory overhang. >> exactly. liz: a lot of capital requirements, for example, which may squeeze margins. >> well, i think that's all sort of been out there. the banking industry is better capitalized than it's ever been in its entire history. most banks, one would argue, have too much capital. and, you're right, it does squeeze margins. that being said, it makes them a lot safer. and many people have talked about banks being utility-like and return to the shareholders through dividends and buybacks, and i think you're really going to see a lot of that come through ccar, in march we're going to see the results of that. liz: okay. so bank of america, that's the rearview mirror. what's the bac of 2013? what stock do you predict in the financial world which, by the way, the financial sector of the s&p 500 up 25% compared to the s&p 500 up about 12%.

which one of the big names do you really feel could be the bank of america of 2013? >> well, i don't think i can give you 100% returner, but i really like citi quite a bit here. i think citi could give us a return in the 40% range. again, if we get a great economy, even a moderate economy, the tangible book value at the end of next year is going to be $59, and citi's still in the upper 30s. liz: and the price starts ratio is at an 8, it had a 47% return over the past year. michael corbett trying to slim this behemoth down. anton, happy new year. thank you for join us. >> happy new year. liz: he gets to throw his confetti early. the closing bell ringing in 29 minutes. where can you make some money mt. currency market next year? if you're not sure about stockings? think it's betting on the euro versus the dollar? try again. l michael melon is going long north of the border and short

certain emerging markets, but he's got a best play that you really need to hear about in a fox business exclusive. keep it right here if you want to make money in 2013. ♪

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♪ ♪ liz: admit it, so many of you had a love affair with one stock out there, apple. apple closing 2012 on a high note. shares are up about give or take nearly 5% making it one of the biggest gainers on the nasdaq today. no real news to speak of that's driving a price action, but the gyrations have been wild very much all year. take a look. in the first three months investors were betting it would begin crank out new products every 3-6 months. now, once the iphone 5 came out in early september, apple kind of topped out about $704, $705 a share. steep down trend since then, really in bear market territory. so what are investors worried about? number one, margins. thanks to increased competition from the likes of sam sung and

high-end phones, also the moneyny ipad, you were saying, okay, i already have the kindle fire, whatever. ubs really talked about the ipad mini cannibalizing ipad sales. when you're a gadget company like apple, the market tends to be skeptical of your ability to generate hit products time after time, so the question for 2013, apple tv? i haven't seen it. i've had the original one. it's not doing anything for me, but we'll wait and see. the fiscal cliff talks, how are traders reacting? joining us now on the floor of the new york stock exchange, keith bliss and 116 points. now, listen, the high of the session we were up 157 for the dow jones industrials. tell me about the feel on the floor here. >> well, the feel on the floor is we're actually looking forward to getting 2012 out of the way. [laughter] it's been a tough year all the way around, it's been a very unpredictable year, and it's been a tough one to trade.

today, you're absolutely right, it's been all about what they're talking about down in washington, watching the machinations between the president and the congress is what's been driving this market, and you see that here again today. you always keep your powder dry, you always buy on the dips, and that's precisely what we've got going on. liz: keith pronounced machinations correctly. [laughter] >> that's right. liz: keith, we're waiting to see what happens on the fiscal cliff, but in the aggregate for 2012, up the russell 2000 up 12 percentage points, the s&p up 31, -- s&p up 11. but it's europe, europe actually ended up looking pretty darn good. germany up 30%. i mean, i look at that, and i say all of the fear that was out there including the euro stocks, 600 did unbelievably beautifully. and you say, my goodness, if you

went toward the worst, most fearsome place, europe, you would have done way better than here in the u.s.. >> yeah, absolutely. well, it's like everything that happens in nature as well as the markets and the equity markets. when things get stretched too far one way, they will come back to a happy medium. we saw that in the equity markets this year. they were the best performing asset classes of all the places you could put your money, and it's not without knowing what's going on when you had unprecedented types of money flows coming from central banks around the globe, that money had to go somewhere. the u.s. market has performed very well. by the time we get done today, especially on the fiscal cliff talks, we're going to be up about 14% in the s&p 500. the leaders in that were, of course, financials, tech and consumer discretionary. they performed very, very well. liz: exactly. we just talked banks. we are 22 minutes from thatt3 closing bell ringing. do you have a sense of where we go in the fist three months of 2012 plus or minus -- 2013,

rather? >> i wish i could, but i can almost guarantee you this, we're going to have a lot of volatility the first two months because despite whatever deal we get done today if they get something done by midnight or the first two days of the few congress, we've got a bigger discussion that's looming, and that's on the debt ceiling. so you're going to see the republicans, they're going to cave just to keep the tax increases from going up. but they're going to hold that over the democrats' heads when it comes to the debt ceiling. liz: keith, tell the traders from all of us at fox business we wish you a happy new year. >> will do, and the same to you all. liz: thank you very much. a bit of a breaking angle here that not a lot of people are talking about, and it was only until michael woolfolk jumped up on here, he said, liz, watch out. if washington is unable to come up with a deal or comes up with a deal that the ratings agencies don't like and we get downgraded, the u.s. credit rating gets downgraded, this

could be a real problem. but right now the greenback is the flight to quality. let's get to michael right now, it's a fox business exclusive. you and i were just talking in the commercial break, and you said watch out. s&p already downgraded the u.s. a year ago august to not aaa, so we're aa, right? you look at what's going on whether at fitch or moody's, is if we get another downgrade, how will that effect people's money and investments? >> well, i think the concern is that moody's and fitch decide to downgrade the u.s. if they don't get the deal that they like. it's possible to get a deal, but then not one that they feel comfortable with. if that's the case, you have two of the three major credit rating agencies who have downgraded the u.s. from aaa. that proves negative for the stock market, certainly. we saw back in august of 2011 when standard & poor's downgraded the u.s. 10 president drop in the stock market ahead of that decision, another 8 after the decision. liz: but where did the money go?

it went into u.s. treasuries and the greenback, the u.s. dollar. >> that's our view. our view is if we get a downgrade, that this is, in fact, what's going to happen. perversely, the u.s. dollar would benefit as a safe haven currency, perhaps even the pseudo-safe haven japanese yen would benefit temporarily. and then alto the u.s. is downgraded, u.s. treasuries actually stand some room the gain here. liz: okay. but the yen, for example, was falling today. in fact, it hit its lowest level in two years. the dollar's gain against the yen is the best that we've seen in, what, about five or six years? since '05 really, so seven years. what do you like out there. what are if i could ask you to pick two different currency, do you feel if people want that as slice of their investment pie, where should they be putting their money? >> i think the mistake in 2012 is betting against the euro. the fact that it's a, greece

exiting the eurozone is going to drag down the euro with it. i don't think that's the way you want to play that this coming year. the euro is supported by trade and investment flows, they keep it on an even keel. where you want to focus are on those currencies that have an interest rate advantage, you focus on those currencies that have export-led growth, particularly those that are linked to commodities. i like the canadian dollar for 2013, and the emerging market space i also like the south african rand, a large producer, of course, of precious metals. liz: okay, north of the border, i get that, but you're looking at a south african rand where there is a gyrating political climate sometimes there. you have strikes at the very metal mines and natural resource mines that people talk about. why do you feel that that's sort of a play that people might be at least considering? >> well, i think that as the u.s. dollar we cannens on improving -- weakens on improving conditions this year, that helps to buoy commodity prices, okay?

that is good for investment in those countries that are major commodity exporters -- liz: done very well over the past year. >> they have higher interest rates than you see in many g7 markets. so you're really looking for a emerging market play that is not sensitive to the currency wars. right now it's not brazil. brazil is up in arms about the policy here in the united states and england and japan, zero interest rates, quantitative easing -- liz: would you short the rhode island y'all in brazil? >> i think they're probably going to be one of the weaker emerging market currencies in 2013. liz: what else would you start? >> i really don't like those currencies where you have, you know, political strife in combination with economic problems. and right now although i wouldn't want to short the euro outright, i think that that's certainly one you would want to avoid.

those on the periphery let's say in central europe, perhaps, could be another currency that you would want to avoid. liz: go long the canadian dollar, long the south african rand. >> the worst currency of this coming year is the japanese yen. liz: yeah, it's fall, and the new leader says he is going to spend a lot, so that's going to go down. happy new year, michael. >> thank you, liz. liz: michael woolfolk, dow jones industrials holding on to gains of 117 points. closing bell in just 16 minutes. coming down to the wire as we approach the fiscal cliff. still without a solid deal in place, but both the president and mitch mcconnell, the senator on the republican side, say we're close. up next, allison deans shows you what to invest in whether we have a deal or whether we fall over that edge. ♪

liz: talk about a cliffhanger, with just minutes left in the trading day, the nation's toes clinging like this, like kilroy, right? over the edge of the fiscal cliff. no deal written in stones, but the markets still believe -- 139 points for the dow jones industrials -- that there may be some type of deal. join us now, allison deans, the senior adviser at varick asset management. we brought you in because you're so good at this kind of stuff, and we thought what we should invest in there is no deal or if there is a deal. what's your mind telling you? >> i think there will be a deal.

i think if it doesn't happen tonight, they'll exing tend -- extend some of the benefits, and my sense is it'll be a compromise for both parties. it's just a shame they wait until the very last minute waiting to see what will happen. liz: we have on your screen what people's income is and what kind of extra tax you might endure if we were to go over the fiscal cliff. and as we let people absorb these numbers, there are also a bunch of other issues, you know, 800,000 pentagon workers could be furloughed, all kinds of other issues where emergency unemployment benefits might be ended. so there are lots of complications. but let's talk about people's portfolios, and if we were to go over the cliff which you don't believe is going to happen, but if we were, what would you invest in right now? >> i'd stick to being very conservative. there's a good chance we could dip into a recession. in that type of environment, you

want to be in very safe and secure stocks, and you want to have a more conservative portfolio. you want to be invested in the high quality fixed-income and not be that global in your organization. liz: how would you characterize picking a secure stock? >> high dividend growth rate, very strong dividend payout rate as well, so one of those solid blue chip, large cap type of companies. liz: treasuries. i mean, the yield is kind of pathetic. >> and quite frankly, because i do think this'll be resolved, and i think treasuries are going to be one of the worst investments in the next few years. however, in this environment there's a flight to quality, and everyone around the world goes into u.s. treasuries. liz: right. which is exactly what happened the last time we got our credit downgraded. michael and i were just talking about that, michael woolfolk. let's say there is that deal, a little more risk at the moment. what would you be investing in

in that case? >> my sense is you should own equities, because i think corporations have not been investing. if they see certainty in clarity and no draconian taxes coming out, i think there's a tremendous amount of pent-up demand to make acquisitions, all of which bodes well for equities. liz: many haven't upgraded their computer systems, so you would think this would be that cycle that finally kicks back in action. >> i think they've been waiting to see what happens in washington because right now the age of most of the infrastructure, 8, 19 years is the oldest going back decades, so there is a tremendous amount of pent-up demand. liz: right now you're operating as though we will have a deal, and ha's your side window trade? the riskiest slice of the investment pie where you throw it out in? >> i think people should be going down market a little bit in market cap, so i would look at mid cap and small cap, and they've really been

underperformers -- liz: although the russell has done very nicely, over the past year up 12%. it's bested the s&p 500. >> well, i think it'll do even better. i could see it significantly outperforming the s&p. the small caps and mid caps have just been since 2008 much weaker companies. i think emerging market debt could become very entering. liz: do you look at that sort of looking for companies going through great times or bad times? >> if you looks at starbucks in 2009, look at it today. and youty to yourself, had i just gotten in there? it's just a good company going through a bad time. >> yes. i tend to look from an asset class perspective, so i look add equities versus fixed income, global versus domestic b, but i've always thought some of the best ways to make money is a company that's mediocre getting good. while they're safe investments,

they don't always give you the upside. liz: how do you feel about punies? >> munis? >> people should continue to own those. we have aging demographic. the demand for munis, i think, is going to continue to grow. so i think their a good place to park money. liz: do you take chances on pure play commodities? >> i think everyone should have some exposure, but i tend to look at them much more as an inflation hem. if you -- hedge. it's a good way of offsetting some of the equity -- liz: gold's up $20, do you like gold? >> i feel gold is more of an emotional investment, so they're more interesting to me, but i tend to tell people to take a was debt approach based on demand for commodity-based products. liz: i have a nickel and zinc guy. allison, happy new year. thank you very much for joining us today. >> thank you. liz: allison deans, senior

adviser at varick asset management. okay, 161 point gain at the moment, and we are six minutes from that closing bell as we head into the final moments of trading in 2012, i'm going to tell you the one stock that's riding apple's coat tails today. that's next. ♪ muck. ♪ ♪ [ indistinct shouting ]

♪ [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. split-second stats. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ it's so close to the options floor... [ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ] ...you'll bust your brain box. ♪ all onhinkorswim from td amerrade. ♪

liz: okay, the apple halo, and it is cirrus logic, the company that has done beautifulfully thanks to the iphone 5. why? because cirrus enables siri to answer all of your questions, including the stupid ones like, siri, do you want to have sex with me? how many of you done that? up 71% over the past 52 weeks. crus, so as apple ramps up iphone 5 demand and starts to really get that out in the markets, you can see that cirrus logic is doing very nicely today. first of all, happy new year to everybody out there as we count down these last seconds until -- oh! >> oh, my goodness.

you got it all over yourself! liz: happy new year to everybody, and here we go for "of after the bell." we're watching this fiscal cliff discussion every second of the way. david? david: what happened? here, let's brush it off. by the way, clearly the market right now sees what's happening in washington is good even though it's just a rumor rally. so far all we have are rumors. we may during this hour have specific information about how close we get to that fiscal cliff, whether they finally reach some kind of compromise to prevent us from going off of it. liz: diane has been with the traders each day, but the markets still, diane, very much at the mercy of washington. >> reporter: that's very true, liz. and if you take a look, we're right by the spa day chart here, look at how many times the dow crossed red and green territory today. it's been a bit of a roller coaster, to say the least, up about 150 points now, though u on the dow. we have hewlett-packard, cate